Quarterback drought at Florida? Damned shame, I say.
What has made the stretch tougher for Florida fans to stomach is the number of in-state quarterback prospects who have enjoyed success at other schools. Bridgewater, out of Miami Northwestern, led Louisville to a 33-23 win over the Gators in the Sugar Bowl and is projected as the top overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Geno Smith, out of Miramar High, passed for more than 11,000 yards and 98 TDs in his college career at West Virginia. Aaron Murray, out of Plant High in Tampa, is a Heisman candidate at Georgia who holds the school record for career TD passes with 99.
Murray and Bridgewater were offered scholarships at Florida. Smith was not. Tampa Plant High coach Robert Weiner said that the interest between Murray and Florida was mutual.
“He actually was a Florida fan, wore Florida shirts when he was in high school,” Weiner said. “Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen recruited him. But I always tell our guys when you go on a visit you’re going to have a gut feel about a school. I think Aaron felt that went he went to Georgia. Football was a big part of it, but I also think he fell in love with Athens, the campus, the downtown area. He liked the small-town feel of it.”
Aaron Murray has taste and the rest is history, thankfully.
Get The Picture 
Instead they’ve been left with Driskel, the #1 Overall quarterback from his class and John Brantley before him who was #3 in his class.
I’m not so sure the problem is talent, but development. One more reason fans calling for Bobo’s head need to be intensely ignored.
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Spoilsport. 😉
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I can see you’re all choked up about the poor Gators.
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I had forgotten that Driskel was the top QB. Your comment made me look back at Rivals’ top 5 pro-style QBs from 2011:
1) Jeff Driskel (32 overall)
2) Cody Kessler
3) Max Wittek
4) Christian LeMay
5) Brandon Allen
Of course, it’s still relatively early in their careers, but that group doesn’t seem to be a bunch of world-beaters.
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So what you are saying is, it was a very weak year for QBs. How the heck can Driskel be the number one pro-style. Had they said number one scrambling QB I could possibly be there.
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From 2008 – 2012, UF had four offensive coordinators.
Pretty good way to screw up a QB’s development.
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+1. If AM had gone to FU he would have been ruined, first by Myer and then by Boom.
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But would his house have been egged?
(Shame on the Murray haters on those who egg them on.)
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No, but the Gators will eat him alive. LOL
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More rational members of the Bobo haters club (LOL) just like him to stop play calling duties (OC), and just continue developing QB.
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Maybe Hernandez escorted Murray and/or Bridgewater around campus?
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Yeah, and Hernandez drove them around and tricked them into smoking PCP before leading them into several dicey situations in the bad part of Gainesville (read: all of it). At the end of the night, he bellowed “King Kong! Ain’t got nothin’! On ME!”
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Murray was likely prevented from touching the Crystal ball that our future TE broke and A.M. just felt slighted. LOL
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We’ll never really know how many players good Old Athens has gotten for us over the years. Special college town even if the locals are sometimes a pain, I’m looking at you ACCPD.
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Harumph! Athens doesn’t have the GatorNationals.
It brings every single living, breathing central Florida redneck to one location each year! Jorts galore, but shirts are scarce.
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Don’t discount the Southern Nationals. Its only a 30 minute drive up 441 to Commerce once a year to get a good dose of north GA culture.
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I cannot figure out how a program like Florida somehow so quickly became synonymous with the concept of inept offense. You would think a school best known for Emmett, Tebow, Spurrier, and Urban would have a little more success finding coaches and players wanting to be a part of that tradition and identity.
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Coaching. Teams acquire the identity of the HC.
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Fault, you gotta remember that for the majority of its history Florida has been a football program that can’t get out of its own way. It might be something innate to the setting. Bear Bryant said Florida was the team he’d be afraid of if they could get their act together.
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UGA fans should remember how a lot of FU followers were so upset when June Jones the then HC of NO LOSS Hawaii in 2008 said TEBOW was a product of a system I.E. Urban Myer’s. Tebow’s current NFL experience seem to prove him right—- nothing seem fits.
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I like Driskel. I like to see the terror in his eyes when Jarvis Jones is running toward him.
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The sweetest part of this is how all the Gators down here refer to Murray as the midget or Erin. They were/are insistent that Meyer didn’t want him and he didn’t fit Urb’s offense etc. It seems that the fact that Brantley was a pro style qb and Aaron ran the spread in high school to somehow escape their limited thought capacity. The Tampa Tribune did a big article on Murray’s recruitment being the hometown star and all and it detailed how FL went all out to land Murray. I hope he throws for 4 TDs in JAX. And on the subject of the WLOCP I don’t know what the rules are for the HOF induction is but Jarvis should be in this year. Everybody have a good weekend and Go Dawgs.
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I doubt if they put him in this soon, but Jarvis is a lock for the WLOCP Hall of Fame.
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At the Cocktail Party last year, I sat in the Florida section. There were some old guys near me saying to each other that they prefer to have Driskel over Murray. I chuckled to myself.
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favorite jorts smack ever:
“Aaron Murray has taste and the rest is history, thankfully”
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The bottom line is that Corch’s system doesn’t develop QBs. No high-school kid in his right mind with NFL hopes should ever want to play in his system. There’s no reading and no checking off, so a QB doesn’t develop the hard to master skills in the Tattoo U offense.
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